The different ministries of Peter, Paul and John

As regards Peter and Paul, we have scriptural authority for
regarding them as the apostles respectively of the circumcision and
of the uncircumcision. Peter and the twelve remained at Jerusalem
when the disciples were scattered, and, continuing (though God was
careful to maintain unity) the work of Christ in the remnant of
Israel, gathered into an assembly on earth, the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Paul, having received the ministry of the
assembly, as of the gospel to every creature under heaven (Col. 1),
as a wise master-builder, lays the foundation. Peter sets us off as
pilgrims on our journey to follow Christ risen towards the
inheritance above. Paul, in the full development of his doctrine
(though owning this, as in Philippians 3), shows us the saints
sitting in heavenly places in Christ, heirs of all which He is heir
of. All this was dispensational, and it is full of instruction. But
John holds a different place. He does not enter on dispensation;
nor, though once or twice stating the fact (as John 13: 1; John 14:
1; John 17: 24; John 20: 17), does he take the saint, nor even the
Lord Himself, up to heaven. Jesus, for him, is a divine Person, the
Word made flesh manifesting God and His Father, eternal life come
down to earth. The epistle of John treats the question of our
partaking of this life, and its character.

The continuation of God's dealings with the earth stated at the
close of John's gospel; in dispensational corruption and outward
disorder, eternal life was the same

But at the close of the Gospel, after stating the sending of the
Comforter on His going away, Christ opens to the disciples (though
in a mysterious way) the continuation of God's dealings with the
earth, of which John ministerially is the representative, linking
the manifestation of Christ on earth at His first coming with His
manifestation at His second; Christ's Person, and eternal life in
Him, being the abiding security and living seed of God, when
dispensationally all was corrupted, and in confusion and decay. If
all were in disorder outwardly, eternal life was still the
same.

The destruction of Jerusalem; the Jewish assembly ceased;
apostacy begun

The destruction of Jerusalem formed a momentous epoch as to
these things, because the Jewish assembly, formed as such at
Pentecost, had ceased (nay, it had even before); only the judicial
act was then accomplished. Christians had been warned to leave the
camp. The breach of Christianity with Judaism was consummated.
Christ could no longer take up the assembly, established in the
remnant of the Jews, as His own seat of earthly authority.* But
alas! the assembly, as Paul had established it too, had already
fallen from its first estate -- could in no sense take up the
fallen inheritance of Israel. All seek their own, says Paul, not
the things of Jesus Christ. All they of Asia -- Ephesus, the
beloved scene where all Asia had heard the word of God -- had
forsaken him. They who had been specially brought with full
intelligence into the assembly's place could not hold it in the
power of faith. Indeed, the mystery of iniquity was at work before
this, and was to go on and grow until the hindrance to the final
apostasy was removed.

{*This was morally true from Acts 3, where
the Jewish leaders refuse the testimony to a glorified Christ who
would return, as they had rejected a humbled One. Acts 7, by the
mouth of Stephen, closes God's dealings with them in testimony, and
the heavenly gathering begins, his spirit being received on
high. The destruction of Jerusalem closed Jewish history
judicially.}

John's ministry in universal declension and ruin

Here, in this state of universal declension and ruin, John's
ministry comes in. Stability was in the Person of Christ, for
eternal life first, but for the ways of God upon earth too. If the
assembly was spued out of His mouth, He was the faithful witness,
the beginning of the creation of God. Let us trace the links of
this in his Gospel. In John 20, as elsewhere noticed in detail, we
have a picture of God's ways from the resurrection of Christ till
we come to the remnant of Israel in the latter days, represented by
Thomas's look on the pierced One and believing by seeing. In John
21 we have, besides the remnant, the full millennial
gathering. Then at the close of the chapter, the special ministry
of Peter and John is pointed out, though mysteriously. The sheep of
Jesus of the circumcision are confided to Peter; but this ministry
was to close like Christ's. The assembly would not be established
on this ground, any more than Israel. There was no tarrying here
till Christ came.* Peter's ministry in fact was closed, and the
circumcision assembly left shepherdless, before the destruction of
Jerusalem put an end to all such connection for ever. Peter then
asks as to John. The Lord answers, confessedly mysteriously, but
putting off, as that which did not concern Peter who was to follow
Him, the closing of John's ministry, prolonging it in possibility
till Christ came. Now, in fact, the Bridegroom tarried; but the
service and ministry of John by the word (which was all that was to
remain, and no apostle in personal care) did go on to the return of
Christ.

{*Paul, of course, is in no way noticed. For him the
assembly belonged to heaven -- was the body of Christ, the house of
God. He was a builder.}

John's special place in connection with the assembly

John was no master-builder like Paul -- had no dispensation
committed to him. He was connected with the assembly in its earthly
structure like Peter, not in the Ephesus or heavenly one; he was
not the minister of the circumcision, but carried on the earthly
system among the Gentiles, only holding fast the Person of
Christ. His special place was testimony to the Person of Christ
come to earth with divine title over it -- power over all
flesh. This did not break the links with Israel, as Paul's ministry
did, but raised the power which held all together in the Person of
Christ to a height which carried it through any hidden time, or
hidden power, on to its establishment over the world at the end; it
did not exclude Israel as such, but enlarged the scene of the
exercise of Christ's power so as to set it over the world, and did
not establish it in Israel as its source, though it might establish
Israel itself in its own place from a heavenly source of
power.

The outward assembly on earth viewed in decay and consequent
judgment, and the true assembly in glory and grace

What place does the assembly then hold in this ministry of John,
found as it is in the book of Revelation? None in its Pauline
character, save in one phrase, coming in after the Revelation is
closed, where its true place in Christ's absence is indicated
(Rev. 22: 17). We have the saints at the time, in their own
conscious relationship to Christ, in reference, too, to the royal
and priestly place to His God and Father, in which they are
associated with Himself. But John's ministerial testimony, as to
the assembly, views it as the outward assembly on earth* in its
state of decay -- Christ judging this -- and the true assembly, the
capital city and seat of God's government over the world, at the
end, but in glory and grace. It is an abode, and where God dwells
and the Lamb. All this facilitates our intelligence of the objects
and bearing of the book. The assembly has failed; the Gentiles,
grafted in by faith, have not continued in God's goodness. The
Ephesian assembly, the intelligent vessel, and expression of what
the assembly of God was, had left its first estate, and unless it
repented, the candlestick was to be removed. The Ephesus of Paul
becomes the witness on earth of decay and of removal out of God's
sight, even as Israel had been removed. God's patience would be
shown towards the assembly as it had been towards Israel; but the
assembly would not maintain God's testimony in the world any more
than Israel had. John does maintain this testimony, ministerially
judging the assemblies by Christ's word,** and then the world from
the throne, till Christ comes and takes to Himself His great power
and reigns. During this transition-dealing of the throne the
heavenly saints are seen on high. When Christ comes, they come with
Him.

{*And hence in particular assemblies, which of course could be
judged and removed. There is another point of divine wisdom
here. Though we have, I doubt not, the whole history of the
assembly to its end in this world, it is given in facts then
present, so that there should be no putting off the coming of the
Lord. So, in the parables, the virgins who go to sleep are the same
that wake up; the servants that receive the talents are the same
found on the Lord's return, though we know ages have passed and
death come in.}

{**Note this immensely important principle: the
church judged by the word, not the church a judge; and the
individual Christian called to give heed to this judgment. The
church (I use the word designedly here as used to claim this
authority) cannot be an authority when the Lord calls me, if I have
ears to hear, to hear and receive the judgment pronounced by Him on
it. I judge its state by the words of the Spirit, am bound to do
so: it cannot be an authority therefore on the Lord's behalf over
me in that state. Discipline is not in question here, but the
church as wielding authority.}

The connection between the writings of John

The first part, then, of the epistles of John is the
continuation, so to speak, of the Gospel before the last two
dispensational chapters; the Revelation, that of these last two
chapters (Rev. 20, Rev. 21), where, Christ being risen and no
ascension given, the dispensational dealings of God are largely
intimated in the circumstances which occur; while it is shown at
the same time that He could not personally set up the kingdom
then. He must ascend first. The two short epistles show us that
truth (truth as to His Person) was the test of true love, and to be
held fast when what was anti-christian came in; and the free
liberty of the ministration of the truth to be held fast against
assumed ecclesiastical or clerical authority, as contrasted with
the assembly. The apostle had written to the assembly. Diotrephes
rejected free ministry.